We all know that the current Rockets can't win without TM. Let's assume that Yao was out instead of TM. How many games we can win for the past three lost games?
it could be 0-3 without yao, T-mac is basically playing with the same talent he had in Orlando. Everybody knows what happened there. It could be that he made tremendous progress since last year. If that's not true, perhaps the difference is Yao.
i don't think we would of had a winning record, that's for damn sure although less so than mcgrady, when yao's on the floor he takes pressure off guys like mcgrady, swift, howard, etc. teams would probably just triple team mcgrady too and force the rest of the team to make shots I'd say 1-2 or 0-3 without Yao. ya saw the difference mcgrady made tonight, however, Yao would have been sorely missed as well.
T-Mac carried the Magic to game 7 against the Pistons single-handedly, as well as the Bucks and the Hornets. He had one bad season when the coach was fired and the organization was in turmoil. Do not distort the facts. If you can name one Magic player worth mentioning, go ahead. He is in a class by himself, he just hasn't had any help. His production in the last 4 postaseasons has been Jordanesque and the best of any player currently playing in the NBA. This thread is hypothetical, unrealistic and speculative, so it should just be locked. Nobody has a crystal ball.
Thats what makes this Combo so good. they both need eachother to be truly Successfull. i think with tracy, instead of yao, we would have won the orlando, heat and the magic game.
Hypothetically, they'd be playoff contenders, but suffer horribly in the post season. Not to say that Yao plays like Patrick Ewing, but Jeff has had experience while playing without a great 5.
T-mac as a perimeter player, and just a great player in general, is used to taking over games offensively. That being said, with the way the other players were playing during those last couple of games, I don't think even with Tmac we would win all 3. Maybe 1 or 2 games.
T-Mac is our go to guy in the clutch and assuming the games would've been close as they were in his absence, I think our chances would've been good.
We would have won 2 out of 3. Only if TMAC plays like he did tonight. YAO was fantastic during the 3 game losing streak. BUT we didn't have that go to guy late inthe game. WIthe TMAC we do.
In every game, guards got us in the end. We got dominated on the perimeter late in games and we didn't have a closer. Tracy is the answer to those problems. I said "2 wins". I'm thinking Orlando and Miami. Tracy would have lit Turkoglu up as usual, and I honestly think that Deke/Zo could have played to a standstill if Yao were out, leaving Tracy to put us over the top in a close game. New Orleans was killing us with too many quick little guards, it wasn't just one guy that T-Mac could have made the difference with. EDIT: I forgot to mention something very elementary in this whole discussion... Yao is arguably a top 20 player in the league. He can only last 35 minutes before losing his effectiveness. He's a nice passer, but he is not a playmaker. People have to get him the ball, which seems impossible at times. Tracy is arguably a top 5 player in the league. He can pretty much last all 48 minutes if you need him to. He is a playmaker. He doesn't rely on other people to get him the ball. These are the reasons that Tracy w/out Yao is a lot better than Yao w/out Tracy.
Without Yao, this team is pretty much like Orlando when TMac was their captain. The bottomline, we were a better ballteam by that time.
Mutumbo would have made fine temporary replacement. Not saying that he could potentially fill Yao's shoes to the brink, but there was no one (i.e. not Anderson, not Wesley, not no one), who could possibly make the impact McGrady could at SG/SF.
who in the world would pretend to know the answer to this question??? let me consult dionne warwick and get back with you.
Wrong. Yao without Tracy is just as good as Tracy without Yao. Granted Yao needs someone to get him the ball, but Tracy needs someone to free up space for him to operate. The reason Orlando fell apart his last year there was because he didn't have guys like Mike Miller to take double and triple teams and zones away from McGrady. In Houston, Yao is another person to concentrate on. Take Yao out of the picture and teams would zone the Rockets to death, meaning that McGrady is dead in the water so the speak unless guys like Wesley and Barry and Anderson knock down shots. That's why this is a team game.
